THE FILM
FILM DIRECTOR: Ray Enright
SCREENWRITER: Lawrence Hazard, Tom Reed
FILM STARS: Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, John Wayne, Margaret Lindsay, Harry Carey, Richard Barthelmess, William Farnum
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Rex Beach
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Grosset & Dunlap
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1942
COUNTRY: USA
COVER: Hardcover
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1905
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Western
WORDS: An action western (for all intents and purposes) film, which is not short on action. There is no subtlety but a lot of fun with two icons of cowboy cinema and a gorgeous Marlene in the middle. Rex Beach’s book was a best seller in 1906 and was subsequently filmed, often … in 1914 with William Farnum, Kathlyn Williams, and Tom Santschi, 1923 with Noah Beery, Sr., Anna Q. Nilsson and Milton Sills, 1930 with Gary Cooper, Betty Compson and William “Stage” Boyd, in 1942 (this tie-in), and in 1955 with Anne Baxter, Jeff Chandler, and Rory Calhoun. The book, set in Alaska at the turn of the last century during the Gold Rush (like many of Beach’s novels), is a potboiler with a lot of action (yes, I repeated that because there is a lot of action) … perfect for filming, and overdue for another version.
LINKS
TRAILER
MUSIC
The title/end title theme by Hans J. Salter
Who would you cast in a new version – Lady Gaga, a Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman?
a good question! The three you have suggested are as good as anyone else. We are due for a remake. The book would have to be in the public domain. They keep remaking “The Call of the Wild” with its Yukon scenery so why not “The Spoilers” and its Alaskan?